Strike 3 for Richard Gomez?

Source: By Gerry Plaza, Special to Yahoo! Southeast Asia

Before even thinking or planning to run for office, candidates should do this imperative: follow the law! And, of course, try to understand it.

If they don’t intend to follow them—the Constitution, the Omnibus Election Code—much less comprehend the gobbledygook, what then would be the use of running at all? This means there is that risk of bringing that kind of insolence into the office you are running for as you try to twist, bend or worse misunderstand the laws or policies you would be sworn to protect.

This is much more mandatory for a candidate seeking to run for a position in an office that actually makes the law. Actor Richard Gomez and his now frustrated run for a House seat shows how candidates must always consider the very nature of how laws work and why we must not go around it, just for the sake of seeking public office.

The residency requirement for local legislative candidates as stated in Article VI, Sec. 6 of the Constitution is definitely not vague to understand:

“No person shall be a Member of the House of Representatives unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and, on the day of the election, is at least twenty-five years of age, able to read and write, and, except the party-list representatives, a registered voter in the district in which he shall be elected, and a resident thereof for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding the day of the election.”

Let’s first put the residency issue aside. Was it just me or did people really find it odd that Gomez decided to run for Representative of the Fourth District of Ormoc, Leyte when he was clearly more visible in Metro Manila? We have always known him as the celebrated hunk model-actor with only urban passions in mind, be it fencing or badminton, and spending weekend afternoons hitting the hoops, playing golf or pumping up in the gym. It was unlikely that someone of his stature could actually acquaint himself with the needs of Ormoc, even with the fact that his wife Lucy hails from this rural city in Leyte.

But despite this, the Liberal Party bet still seemed to go all out for another political run for senator.

He filed his certificate of candidacy last Nov. 30 with much fan fare and publicity. During this event when he submitted his papers at the local Comelec office in mid-afternoon, Gomez tells ABS-CBN News Tacloban when asked if he was at the very least apprehensive about his run, given that he was going against a noted “Ormocanon” politician, Eufrocino Codilla: "Hindi man ako taga-Ormoc eh 'yong misis ko naman. At depende na lang iyan sa platform namin. (I may not be from Ormoc, but my wife is. And that depends on our platform).” Yes, he actually admitted it on-air.

For local politicians, his obvious gaffe was really unnecessary for them to file protest. Just five days after Gomez filed his candidacy, Buenaventura Juntilla, a former barabgay chairman from Ormoc, filed a motion to disqualify Gomez for the obvious reason that he was not a resident of the city. Juntilla said Gomez misrepresented himself in the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) by stating that his address was of Carlota Hills, Ormoc City, when he was actually residing in East Greenhills, San Juan City. Such misrepresentation, he said, is a serious ground for disqualification under Sec. 78 of the Omnibus Election Code.

Gomez naturally said he would vow to fight the disqualification case, claiming it was a plain political ploy hatched by his opponent and that he had been spending more time in Ormoc than in Manila for the past three years.

Despite his claims, the Comelec issued a decision on Feb. 17 disqualifying Gomez for lack of residency, agreeing with Juntilla that the actor failed to meet the minimum residency requirement under the law, even if he had stayed in the locality for a time.

Gomez responded in a TV interview: “Sinabi sa batas, kailangan sa residency ang isang taon na nakarehistro ka doon at doon ka nakatira. Mahigit isang taon ang aking rehistro doon sa pagtira sa Ormoc at napatunayan ko ito lahat sa dokumento. (The law says you need to be registered (as a voter) there and you need to reside there. My registration and residency in Ormoc has been over a year and I have proven it with documents)." He filed a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec on Feb. 19.

He expounded on an interesting reason why he remained at his Greenhills residence even if he filed in his COC that he was a permanent resident of Ormoc City:

“Yung bahay namin sa Greenhills, bahay namin iyon kasi dito kami nagtratrabaho sa Manila for the basic reason na walang studio sa Ormoc. Walang TV station, walang ibang network doon, (We have a house in Greenhills because we work here in Manila and that there is no studio, TV station or networks in Ormoc)," Gomez told the weekly showbiz talk show “Startalk” the next day after he filed his appeal.

But in its ruling, the Comelec agreed with Juntilla on the intricacies of residency. In Juntilla’s motion to disqualify Gomez, he cited a Supreme Court ruling on “Perez vs Comelec 317, SCRA 546 1999,” that stated: “The place where a party actually or constructively has his permanent home, where he, no matter where he may be found at any given time, intends to return i.e., his domicile is the purpose of election law. The fact that a person is a registered voter in one district is not proof that he is not domiciled in another district. It is the fact of residence, not a statement in the certificate of candidacy which ought to be decisive in determining whether or not an individual has satisfied the constitution residence.”

As it is, even if Gomez pursues his case before the High Court, it is quite apparent that this particular ruling would make any appeal futile.

Strike 3 for Richard? If so, then we must know what he should do.

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